The cool retro vibe of Hotel Alexandra, Copenhagen
The cool retro vibe of Hotel Alexandra, Copenhagen
I grew up with grandparents that celebrated all things Scandinavian; Georg Jensen and Arne Jacobsen were common names around their house, and I inherited from them a love of all things midcentury. So when I stayed at Copenhagen’s Hotel Alexandra earlier this year I was in design heaven, for this authentic and affordable 61-room boutique gem – situated just steps from the Tivoli Gardens and bustling City Hall Square – is a passionate, authentic recreation of this fertile era of Danish design.
The retro vibe begins in the chic lobby space (first picture) and is carried throughout the hotel, where all the furniture and light fixtures, fabrics and artworks are genuine midcentury articles (with the welcome additions of flatscreen TVs and WiFi), chosen with vintage furniture expert Anders Petersen – and virtually every object is also for sale. The standard rooms (from €180) are small yet quite special, as no two are exactly alike, but it is the deluxe versions and suites (from €240) dedicated to specific designers – from the calmly minimal Hans J Wegner room (second picture) to the psychedelic 1960s-style Verner Panton suite (third picture) – that really stand out.
The most recent addition to the mix is the 35 sq m Collector’s Suite (from €240 per night, fourth picture) – an exquisite rosewood-panelled space that overlooks the hotel courtyard and Studiestræde below, and which will be reconceived several times each year by Petersen. The furnishings – an early Wegner Sawhorse chair (€2,546), a sculptural coat rack by Adam Hoff and Poul Østergaard (€697), and the black leather upholstered couch by Hans Olsen (€5,200) – are all, in my opinion, worthy of the Museum of Modern Art.
“The point of the room is to make guests feel like they are in a time capsule,” says Petersen – and it works, helped along by the early-1970s ceramics and carefully selected tomes devoted to Panton and Jacobsen that grace the suite’s minimalist dark wood shelving system by Kai Kristiansen (€1,300).
“Our next interior will be dedicated to Poul Kjærholm, one of the most iconic Danish furniture architects of all time,” explains Petersen. “With the help of his daughter, Krestine, we will be producing a bed he originally designed for his own home and of which there are currently only three in existence.”